Hinsdale Central-South Disparity Detailed

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale South High School is running 85 percent of the courses that Hinsdale Central offers this school year, the school district's data shows.

Hinsdale Central, with its wealthier and larger student body, has long offered a greater course selection. It's a gap that Hinsdale High School District 86 board members rarely mention. Five of the seven live in the Central zone.

Over the weekend, the district released its presentation for next school year's staffing. As part of that, the district detailed the number of courses available this year in every department.

According to those numbers, Central offered 236 different courses, more than South's 201.

The disparities were particularly stark in science (South's 16 vs. Central's 23), social studies (South's 14 vs. Central's 18), music (South's 17 vs. Central's 28); and world languages (South's 29 vs. Central's 35).

As for science, the district says the gap is the result of a lack of enrollment in previous years in the track starting with biology for freshmen. For years, South freshmen have begun with physics.

Art was the one category where South had more course selection, with 21 courses to Central's 19. Both had the same number of physical education courses.

Central's enrollment is double South's. Even if South offers a course, it probably offers fewer class sections than Central does. This results in scheduling conflicts, which a previous District 86 study shows is far more common at South than at Central.

The district plans to present its information at a Tuesday meeting of the board's human resources committee.

The online presentation states that a "wide variety" of courses are available at both campuses.

"Our students have lots of opportunities," the presentation says. "In the core disciplines of English, mathematics and science, offerings at both campuses are remarkably similar."

The presentation acknowledges that Central's music offerings are more extensive than South's and that more work is needed on social studies. In 2023, a split school board rejected teacher-recommended changes to align the two schools' social studies curriculums. That action drew the teachers union's rebuke.

For years, some South residents have called for changing the attendance boundary between the two schools to equalize enrollments and thus course opportunities.

But this is largely an unspoken subject at board meetings. It is considered politically toxic because Central residents near the boundary fear their home values would plunge if the line shifted.

In a recent video, Burr Ridge resident Alan Hruby, a longtime critic of the disparity, accused the district of downplaying the gap between course offerings at the two schools.

Three years before, he asserted the same thing, and the district later acknowledged "a little oversight" in its data.